Kyoto

The next morning, we woke up, had breakfast and caught a train to from Tokyo Station to Kyoto which took just under 3 hours. The train could travel up to about 500 km/ph. If you mix up the letters in Kyoto you get Tokyo. When we got to our hotel we looked at our room and dropped off our bags. The room was really cool with a big wooden bath. We left the hotel and started to explore Kyoto. We walked across a bridge down a river until we reached an old area called Gion. We saw these people called Geishas which are rare to see. The streets were old fashioned, there were old shops and no cars. After we walked around for a while we saw a couple of Geishas. Afterwards we went to look for dinner. After about half an hour we found a place to have dinner. The dinner was really good, I had the teriyaki set. After we had dinner we walked back to our hotel room along the river and went to bed.

On the second and last full day we got up early and had breakfast western breakfast which was more Japanese that western. When we finished breakfast, we went back to our room to brush our teeth. Then we walked to a Buddhist Temple that had over 1000 angel statues, 28 warrior gods and one huge Buddha. When we finished walking around there we went to a big sacred mountain called Inari. The pathways were really cool they had big orange frames around them.  When we got to about halfway up the mountain my mum said she’ll just wait and let us go to the top because of the problem with her leg. The walk to the top was really long. When we got to the top we had a really good view from everywhere. My dad took a couple of photos and then we went back down. When we found mum we went back to the bottom of the mountain. When we finally got to the bottom we went to a little street with small shops on it and ate some street food on a stick. One of the interesting things we ate were octopus balls called Takoyaki. On the way back to the hotel we went into two more temples one of which my mum didn’t go into. Then my dad and I went back into the hotel room and sat around for a while and then ordered room service and got pizza. After we had dinner we went to bed.

While we have been travelling around we have been counting how many steps we have done every day and on that day I put my Dad’s phone in my pocket and I got 30,183 steps!

Photos from Asakusa and Ginza

Heading towards Tokyo Skytree

 Shops full of fake food

Crazy tours 

 Dad and I in Asakusa

 Ready to eat Okonomiyaki

Ona random old slide 

At the Senji Shrine 

Sushi Train  

Family 

 Our traditional Ryokan

 Senji Shrine

Old Rollercoaster  

 On a boat

In the Gardens  

In the gardens 

View from Tokyo Skytree 

Our beds in the Ryokan 

 In a virtual world

On the old bus boat

Photos from Shinjuku and Shibuya

 The trains were crowded

 At the Municipal Buildings 

 View from the Park Hyatt or as it is called in Japanese Parko Hyatto

 Me ready to take a picture

 Me at Meiji Shrine

 At the top of the Municipal Tower

 Meiji Park

 I can't remember the name of this temple and shrine - we found it while walking around

 At the Park Hyatt Pool

 Meiji Shrine

 Takeshita Street (haha)

 With Dad looking at records

 At the municipal building 

 Crazy Panaromas

 The best Sasebo Burger

 Shabu Shabu great food

 Writing my blog

 Me being forced to be Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. Dad did it too.

 Dinner at the Park Hyatt Restaurant

 Me and Mum at the Arcade

 Shibuya Scramble - meant to be the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world

 Me at Shibuya Scramble

 Playing Soccer

At at temple

Tokyo part 2 - Asakusa and Ginza

The next day we woke up and checked out of the hotel and then caught a taxi to Asakusa. In the hotel we were staying at we were going to be sleeping on mattresses on tatami mats on the floor. We were in a room were everything was small which is the old traditional way. The type of hotel is called a Ryokan. First of all, we had a look at our room and unpacked, next we went to a laundromat to clean our clothes which was difficult because everything was in Japanese. My mum waited at the laundromat and read her book while my dad and went for a walk. We saw some interesting things, we saw about five shops that sold samurai swords. Then we went back to the laundromat to pick my mum up. Then we walked back to our hotel. I went on my iPad while my parents looked on the internet for restaurants to go to. When they found one we went off to find it. It took a while for us to find where to go but when we got there we had to take are shoes of. The table was a table with a hotplate in the middle. We had to sit on the floor. We cooked our own food as well with a little help, there were a kind of omlette called Okonomiyaki. When we had finished our dinner, which was really good we went back to our room and went to bed.

On the second day in Asakusa, we had a Japanese style breakfast at the hotel. The we went back to our room, got ready and went to Tokyo’s oldest temple called Sensō-ji. We walked around and looked at the statues, shrines and gardens. Afterwards we walked across the Sumida river to Tokyo Skytree. We went up the tower and we had a good view of Tokyo from up there but it was cloudy so we couldn’t see Mount Fuji. We had lunch at the tower and then went on a boat along the river. When the boat trip finished, we looked for somewhere to have dinner. Mum said it could be my choice for dinner so we went to a sushi train place. I liked the food. When we finished, we walked back to our hotel and went to bed.

On the last day, we took the boat up the river again but this time we got off at Hama-rikyu Gardens. We saw a lot of plants and some trees blossoming, we also saw a three hundred year old tree and a couple of lakes with old bridges. We spent a couple of hours walking around the grounds and then walked to Ginza. There are a lot of expensive shops in Ginza. We had lunch there and then headed back to catch the boat to Asakusa. We walked to Kappabashi shopping street which sells things for restaurants like chairs and bowls but also, fake food! The fake food is more expensive than the real thing and a lot of restaurants in Japan have displays of the dishes they sell outside the restaurant so you know what kind of food they serve. From there we walked to Hanayashiki which is the oldest amusement park in Japan. Mum and I went onto the lamest roller coaster ever. Mum said that it was funny cause it was so bad. We walked around all the little souvenir shops and then went to a supermarket and bought ham, cheese and bread to make sandwiches for a cheap dinner. We went back to our room, made the sandwiches and ate them. I went on my iPad for a bit and then went to bed.

Tokyo part 1 - Shinjuku and Shibuya

For those people who have read my blogs before you would know that I get air sick on planes, but this time I didn’t get sick at all. I watched a couple of movies but that didn’t take up the whole ten-hour flight. The movies that I watched were the new Ice Age movie, “Back to the Future” and half of “Crocodile Dundee”, which took up about 5-6 hours of the flight but the rest of the time I played on my iPad.

After we landed and went through all the customs we went in a hotel car to the hotel. We are staying in a hotel called the Park Hyatt which had a movie filmed in it called “Lost in Translation” which is one of my Dad’s favourite movies. The hotel is really nice and fancy and we have a great view of Mount Fuji and the city. After we had a look at our room we had dinner and then went to bed.

Also, a lot of the toilets including the one in our hotel room, squirt water up your bum to clean all the poo off. You can adjust the temperature of the water and the pressure of the water. You can also adjust the heat of the seat and the dryer.

The next morning, I woke up, went on my iPad, then we went to have breakfast in the hotel. It was nice, I had bacon and eggs. When we finished having breakfast we went to get are tickets validated for the train (they are pretty much like paper Mykis. Well turns out that we were in the biggest train station in the world. It took us an hour to find out where to go. 

We caught a train to Harajuku to go to a very big park called “Mogokoro” we walked around for a while and it was so cool. Then we went to a shrine in the park called “Meiji Jinga” we looked around there and prayed. After that we went down a side street full of shops called Takeshita street ha-ha yes very funny. The street was really crowded and the shops sold some weird T-shirts and giant fairy floss. 

We went back to Harajuku station and caught the train to Shibuya we went past the worlds busiest intersection, you can even cross diagonally there. Then after we crossed the road we went to get lunch except my dad went record shopping while my mum and I had lunch. Then on the way back we took some photos of the intersection. I even climbed up on something right next to the busy road to take a photo. 

On the way back from the biggest train station in the world to our hotel we stopped to watch some people play soccer. They were kind enough to let me join in. Not that long into the game the team I was on got a penalty because of a handball. They let me take the penalty and shot and it went in, it was a pretty good penalty. Later on the other team scored a goal. It was really fun.

When the game finished we went back to the hotel and went to the hotel restaurant hotel to get dinner I had a yummy steak and for dessert I had a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Then after that we went back to the room and then went to bed.

The second day we explored the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. My dad who listens to a lot of music went to two record stores called Disc union, both stores were seven stories high. That took two and a bit hours which was a bit boring for me. Then we went to golden guy which is a whole heap of tiny bars and restaurants which only fit 5-6 people! Then we explored the Kabuki-Cho area which was filled with loads of lights and lot of noise and lot of crazy stuff. We played a weird drum game in an arcade and for some reason my dad and I got 2 extra games. Then we walked back to the hotel and I had a sandwich for dinner and a piece cake then I went to bed.

The third day we went to the Municipal building and took some cool panorama photos. We went in a photo booth which is a first for me. At the top of the building we had a very good view of the city which is only buildings and nothing else. Then we caught a train to Yoyogee. One of my Uncle’s friends was in search for the greatest Sasebo burger and he found it. He was on Japanese TV, so we had the Sasebo burger from that place he recommended to everyone on that show. Then we went back to Harajuku and we looked at another shrine called Togo Shrine. We prayed and walked around the shrine for a while. My parents took photos of the first blossoms. Then we came back to our hotel because it got really cold and really wet. Then we went to a restaurant which had really good food. It was kind of like a fondue. When we finished we went to our room and went to bed.